The 2001-2002 Great Performers Series continues at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall with Grammy Award-winner Alison Brown on Thursday March 14, 2002 at 8:00 p.m. for one performance. Tickets are $25.00 general public; $20.00 for seniors; and $15.00 for students. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at the Rockwell Hall Box Office, 1300 Elmwood Ave. or by calling 716-878-3005. Box Office hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm.



Alison Brown never thought that a BA from Harvard and an MBA from UCLA would lead an investment banker like her down the path to international musical acclaim - with stops at Carnegie Hall and the Grammy Award acceptance podium along the way. Never one to follow the herd (how many Grammy-winning banjo-playing investment bankers do you know?), Brown's style is a jazz-classical-pop-folk-Latin mix. "[Alison is] a true ground breaker, opening up whole new vistas for an instrument once solely associated with pickin' 'n' grinnin'," according to USA Today. Named Banjo Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, Brown and her Quartet (John R Burr: piano, Garry West: bass and Kendrick Freeman: drums) take the banjo quantum leaps beyond traditional bluegrass with a sound that the Hollywood Reporter describes as "an ear opening pleasure." With the completion of her seventh solo album Replay, Brown continues to storm forward, breaking musical boundaries every chance she gets.



Replay is a collection of 15 tracks recorded live in the studio over 2 days between performances at the Grand Ole Opry and the band's departure for the Shetland Islands Folk Festival. More than anything, the album is the sound of the Alison Brown Quartet relaxed and having a jamming good time in the studio. The fact that Replay was not originally intended for commercial release may have played a big part in that feel, creating a sound so enticing that the band later decided that it HAD to be released. The album consists of a collection of "fan" favorites in the energetic, updated arrangements that have evolved onstage in the years since Alison Brown formed the Quartet. Produced by Garry West, Replay showcases Brown's penchant for melodic flair. Her sound is both innovative and accessible and in Brown's hands, her Appalachian instrument takes bluegrass, bebop and Hot Club swing into the stratosphere.



Since she began her solo recording career a decade ago, Brown has been acknowledged as one of the top innovators on the five string banjo. She has previously recorded six solo albums, including the 2001 Grammy-winner Fair Weather and Grammy-nominated Simple Pleasures, and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR's All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and BET's Jazz Central, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Southern Living, Attache Magazine (US Airways inflight magazine) and Dirty Linen. She and bassist West are also founders of Compass Records, one of the nation's leading independent labels, and have been guest lecturers at a variety of universities including Harvard Business School, Dartmouth and the University of Colorado.



The Alison Brown Quartet has come a long way in a short time to assume a prominent place in the new acoustic movement. Brown has composed and played her way into the affections of fans of jazz-hued acoustic music with a unique voice on a relatively unexplored instrument. On Replay, Brown takes her fans on a musical tour of her career, from bluegrass to jazz and back again.